State Investigating Work-release Allegations

February 21, 2004|By JEFFREY B. COHEN; Courant Staff Writer

ENFIELD — The state Department of Correction is investigating allegations that inmates exploited a work release program to smuggle drugs, cigarettes and money into the prison system while on work detail at the Shaker Pines Fire Department in the late 1990s, the state said Friday.

The program at Shaker Pines -- one of Enfield's five independently taxing fire districts -- was terminated last fall after an inmate was caught drinking alcohol at a departmental picnic.

The smuggling allegations were revealed last week as the district's fire commission discussed why the correction department denied a recent commission request to reinstate the program -- which saved the commission about $60,000 during the first few years it was in existence, records show.

At last week's meeting, 12-year career Fire Capt. Patrick Gallo told the commission that alcohol consumption was the least of the concerns in the work-release program, and he related the stories about alleged smuggling. He added that one inmate was reportedly caught having sex with a woman in a fire department bathroom.

In an interview this week, Gallo said he had turned over all of his documentation to the correction department.

Nelson Rodriguez, the commission's former president and a captain at the DOC's Willard-Cybulski Correctional Institution, said in interviews that the problem was not as bad as Gallo made it sound and that inmates who violated the program were dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

``Whenever there was contraband, it was reported, and we took care of it,'' he said.

``What happened at Shaker Pines is nothing out of the ordinary with any of the other [work] details,'' said Rodriguez, who headed the prison's regional work release program for most of a decade. ``This is a public service that the department is providing. The work they've done over the last 10 years -- you can't replace that.''

Officials have said the program was cost-effective and allowed the already short-staffed department to get work done it otherwise would not have the workers to complete.

``To tell you the truth, I had a good experience with most of the inmates,'' said Raymond Aiken, commission president and a former volunteer fire chief. ``If they were nasty, they lasted a half a day and we sent them back.''

Throughout the program, which began in 1993, fire personnel picked up anywhere from two to three inmates five days a week from Willard-Cybulski at 8 a.m., drove them to the station, supervised them and took them back to prison in time for the 4 p.m. head count, fire department documents show.

While working, the inmates performed general maintenance duties, said fire Chief Thaddeus Soltys, who began work at the department in 2002, after the alleged incidents took place.

As recently as June 2002, the fire marshal warned the chief that unrestrained inmates who were part of the program should not have been near children at the fire station during a third-grade "carnival" and that parents had raised concerns.

In an interview Thursday, Soltys said he had no reason to doubt the claims that Gallo made at last week's commission meeting.

``Why would he lie?'' Soltys said. ``These are serious allegations. To get up and lie about this ... that would only be setting himself up for a big fall if it wasn't true.''

Gallo refused to comment further on his allegations Thursday. But Fire Marshal David Senatore, who supervised the inmates with Gallo, was able to add some detail.

Occasionally, inmates did things wrong, he said. Some hid drugs in the station; one inmate had a carton of Kool cigarettes mailed to the department; another had friends drive up to the department's parking lot, turn around and make a brown-bag drop. Inside were cigarettes, vitamin supplements and ``other contraband,'' Senatore said.

When a problem was found, fire officials either called the department or notified the proper authorities on returning the inmates to prison, Senatore said.

He and Gallo regularly checked on the inmates every 20 minutes or so to make sure they were still doing their jobs, the fire marshal said.

``But if you're going to stand and watch them cut the grass, you might as well cut the grass yourself,'' he said.

According to DOC spokesman Ed Ramsey, the department's security division is investigating the allegations, and he could give no more specific information.

Asked whether he knew of any departmental concerns about safety or supervision at the fire district, Ramsey said, ``Emphatically, no.''

Speaking generally, Ramsey said inmates on work-release programs are at Level 2 -- a Level 1 inmate is low risk, a Level 5 inmate is high risk -- or lower and have had their records scrutinized. He added that inmates' status can be restricted ``for even minor disciplinary infractions.''

On the positive side, though, Ramsey said work programs such as the one at Shaker Pines ideally benefit both the inmates -- skills, a sense of responsibility, improved self-esteem -- and the community, which gets free labor.

He estimated that the department's work programs save agencies $3 million each year on labor costs statewide.

Asked whether the program provided substantial savings to the department, Soltys responded that the savings ``weren't going to make a big impact in the operating budget for the year.''

Aiken was volunteer chief when these incidents allegedly occurred.

``If this happened when I was chief, nobody informed me about it,'' he said Thursday. ``I'm amazed I was not informed if it happened, because I would never have tolerated that kind of stuff.''

Aiken has recently returned to the department as its commission president after stepping down as its last volunteer chief three years ago. He had served more than 30 years.